Last weekend we had Dave's Grandparents here visiting with us. Friday night they asked us if we had ever been to the SAS Factory. Of course we hadn't, so Saturday morning we headed out for an adventure. I don't think we would of ever thought to go here, why go to a shoe factory? Right. Well, it was really quite a fun outing! Outside they had all sorts of antique cars and carriages, even an old horse drawn hearse. Inside they of course had shoes, but plenty of other things to look at. The kids favorite part was all the fun treats, popcorn, drinks, cookies, honey roasted nuts, candy. Our favorite part was the price of those things...popcorn for 5 cents, drinks for 10 cents, cookies for 15 cents, nuts for 25 cents, candy was fill a bag for $2. They got a kick out of trying the old penny scale and seeing who weighed what. Also inside they had a women sitting among the shoes actually sewing a pair of shoes. This company still makes their shoes by hand, so that was kind of cool to see. They had a sign up saying they do tours to see all stages of the shoe making process during the week. So maybe we'll go back one day to see that too, it looks interesting. So if you need to get out for a few hours and don't want to spend much I recommend this place!
Last Friday we went downtown to the Amtrack station (didn't even know we had an Amtrack station) to take a look at the Christmas Carol train. From what I saw online, this was supposed to be a behind the scenes look at the new movie coming out in November. The pictures made it look lie an indoor display, so I thought it must be a traveling thing that they set up inside the station. It also mentioned there would be snow. I thought HOW FUN a snow machine! So we loaded up, on a VERY HOT day and headed down. Only to see that really everything was set up inside a traveling train, not the inside of the station. But it was too late to turn around as the kids were already excited to explore. SO we got in a LONG line and waited close to an hour to board the Christmas Carol train. Once inside we saw some really cool stuff, but it was still hot as the train wasn't A/C'd. Only a few fans blowing air, and people were packed in like sardines. When we finished the train we were directed to another line to see the sneak preview of the movie in 3-d. Luckily this line was shorter, and once inside this blow up building it was cooler. The movie looks like it will be pretty good too from the sneak preview. Here is the funniest part though, the "snow" was soap suds blowing up in the air out of a fake chimney looking thing. So much for an ice machine. Although we got very hot, and cranky by the end. I think the kids enjoyed the outing.
